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KRMA
KRMA, also known as Rocky Mountain PBS is a network of five PBS stations. History The network's flagship station, KRMA-TV (channel 6) in Denver, first signed on the air on January 30, 1956 as an educational television station owned by the Denver Public Schools, with University of Denver instructor Jim Case serving as its program director. It is the oldest public television station in the Rocky Mountains. Its original studio facility was located in a converted body shop at the Emily Griffith Opportunity School in downtown Denver. The station was originally a member of National Educational Television (NET), before becoming a member of PBS when it launched on October 6, 1970. Originally broadcasting only two hours of programming a day during the week, KRMA soon became a key PBS member, distributing PBS programming to many areas in the Rocky Mountain region that did not have educational stations of their own. From the 1960s onward, it began building translators across Colorado and surrounding states. It was also carried by nearly every cable television system in Colorado and eastern Wyoming. Denver Public Schools sold KRMA to the community group Channel Six, Inc. in 1987. In 1992, KRMA moved its operations into a studio facility on Bannock Street in Denver's Civic Center neighborhood, which formerly housed the operations of ABC affiliate KUSA-TV (channel 9, now an NBC affiliate); that station moved to a new facility located on Speer Boulevard before KRMA moved into the Bannock Street facility. In response to requests from viewers on the Western Slope, KRMA applied for and was awarded a construction permit by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to operate a station on UHF channel 18 in Grand Junction in August 1995. That station signed on the air on January 1, 1997 as KRMJ. Prior to that station's launch, KRMA had been available on cable in western Colorado for decades. It still operates a number of translators in the area. Soon afterward, KRMA dropped its longtime "Six" branding and relaunched as "Rocky Mountain PBS", while Channel Six, Inc. changed its name to the Rocky Mountain Public Broadcasting Network. In 1999, KTSC (channel 8) in Pueblo joined the network after it was sold by the University of Southern Colorado (now CSU-Pueblo). The station had originally operated as a separate PBS station for Pueblo, Colorado Springs and southern Colorado from its sign-on on February 3, 1971. Until KRMJ's sign-on, KRMA and KTSC had been the only full PBS members in Colorado (as mentioned above, Denver's KBDI is a "beta" PBS member). On December 3, 2004, KRMU (channel 20) in Durango signed on to serve southwestern Colorado and a small portion of northwestern New Mexico. When KRMU received its license in 2001, it was the first television station in the United States to operate a digital signal without a companion analog channel assignment. On February 2, 2007, Rocky Mountain PBS added its fifth full-service station and its second station in western Colorado, KMAS-TV (channel 24) in Steamboat Springs. KMAS had served as the Telemundo station for the Denver market prior to joining RMPBS, and brought its programming into Denver itself by way of two low-powered repeater stations—KMAS-LP (channel 33) and KSBS-LP (channel 10). However, its status was placed in doubt when NBC Universal purchased KDEN-TV (channel 25) and converted it into a Telemundo owned-and-operated station. NBC Universal finally decided to donate the KMAS license and transmitter to Rocky Mountain PBS. On September 4, 2007, the station's call letters were changed to KRMZ, reflecting its identity as a Rocky Mountain PBS station. On January 16, 2013, it was announced that the non-profit investigative journalism organization I-News Network and public radio station KUVO (89.3 FM) had reached an agreement to merge with Rocky Mountain PBS. The merger is intended to broaden the reach of their content to new platforms and ensure formal collaboration between the outlets. The deal was expected to close in April 2013. With the merger, the corporate name was modified to Rocky Mountain Public Media. In November 2019, Rocky Mountain PBS received a new logo and changes their branding from "RMPBS" to "Rocky Mountain PBS." Stations Full Power Stations Logo History Coming soon Gallery Category:PBS Member Stations Category:PBS Member Networks Category:Denver Category:Colorado Springs/Pueblo Category:Grand Junction Category:Durango Category:Steamboat Springs Category:Colorado Category:Channel 6 Category:Channel 8 Category:Channel 18 Category:Channel 20 Category:Channel 24 Category:Television channels and stations established in 1956 Category:1956 Category:Former NET Affiliates Category:Former NTA Film Network affiliates Category:VHF Category:UHF Category:PBS Colorado